The Mud-Soaked Path to Success BY EMILY KESEL
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t’s a typically gray-skied, rainy day in Valkenburg, Netherlands, and fans of a niche sport are gathered by the thousands around a muddy track. In the middle of the venue, the most hardcore of those fans populate a rave tent, celebrating and wearing costumes and having a blast. The sport is cyclocross. The event is the 2018 World Championships. And somewhere in all the chaos is Raylyn Nuss, '13, experiencing the “aha moment” that would change the path of her life. Nuss had been competing in the sport already as a way to train for the cycling portion of triathlon, but her trip to Worlds inspired her to pivot to cyclocross completely. Part of the appeal was the more rigorous athletic demands of the sport – which consists of about 50 minutes’ worth of laps around a course that can include all types of terrain and must force a rider off their bike at least once – but she also saw the value of the community-oriented nature of cyclocross. “At that moment I was all in,” she said of seeing the Super Bowllike crowds at the World Championships. “I dropped triathlon and told myself I’d do everything I can to be able to race in this race.” She did just that, quickly working her way up the ranks of the women’s cyclocross riders in the U.S. within a couple years of picking up the sport. As a basketball player for the majority of her life, including her time at Central, Nuss says the discipline suited her background well. “In traditional cycling, you can get away with just being very smart and savvy, kind of sitting in groups,” she said. “But with this sport, you’re exposed, and there’s no hiding. So you have to have the fitness. You have to be very punchy and quick.” You also have to be prepared to face the elements of nature, as the competitive season takes place in the fall and winter months for the Northern Hemisphere. Racers compete in the rain and snow, on grass, dirt, sand, and what little pavement there may be at the starting line – mostly riding, but also carrying their bikes while running up stairs or around other impediments. Nuss trained hard whenever she could in her early years of racing while working full-time as a scientist at Pfizer, running, biking, and doing fitness training on her lunch breaks or after work. The routine helped her land a few podiums and earn a number seven ranking in the U.S. for the 2019 season, but as she began racing in World Cups – the top level of the sport – she knew she had to commit further. “The buildup before going over [to Europe] while working fulltime was kind of the moment where I’ve never been more stressed out in my entire life,” said Nuss. “And I knew that if I really wanted to pursue this career as a cyclist while I’m still young enough to be able to do it, I would have to leave my job.”
Photo by Kenza Barton Schlee
